Fall's Adversity
by InvokedPanda
Summary: The Admiral struggles with the weight of once again sinking a shipgirl. With the help of his secretary and wife, Gangut, he bounces back on his feet and prepares to finish the Battle of Leyte Gulf


STORY:

The command room is filled with a intense aura, only two people are in this room, the Admiral and his trusted wife and secreatary ship Gangut.

"Admiral, your next order..? She was the one to break the silence, she said this with a solemn tone.

"Proceed to the next node." Is what the already tense Admiral told his Secretary ship to relay over the radio to the Nishimura Fleet.

"Proceed!? Admiral, have you gone insane?! Asagumo is already at taiha condition and three other girls are at chuuha, but you still want them to proceed?!" Said an enraged silver haired russian, slamming her palm ontop of the Admiral's desk.

"Yes." Replied the Admiral with a completely straight face.

"You can't be ser-" Gangut was abrupty interrupted.

"We're at the final stage, Gangut. We can't just let them return home empty handed. I'm sorry, but our resources are very limited and time is running out, the abyssals seem to be leaving soon. It's either now or never."

"Even if we did get them to go forward, the odds of sinking the Entombed Guardian is very low. Please think about this rationally, Admiral." Said the weary secretary ship.

"This is an order, tell them to proceed, Gangut."

An order is an order, it can't be disobeyed without a punishment. So the Admiral's secretary clicked her tongue and went over to the radio. "Sorry for the wait.. your next order is to move forward into the boss node and sink the Entombed Guardian for the last time. "

The Nishimura Fleet obviously is in protest, but Gangut tunes it out and interupts them.

"The Admiral believes in you all, we're going to have to celebrate the end of the event when you guys get back."

The other end of the radio goes quiet.

After a while, the stillness was broken. The flagship of the Striking Fleet finally responded "Roger that, Proceeding onward. Victory shall be ours."

Gangut sinks onto her chair, she is in disbelief over the order her Admiral made her say.

The two of them sit in silence, awaiting the status report of the final battle.

After what seemed like an eternity, the Flagship of the Nishimura Fleet, Yamashiro finally spoke with a despaired tone.

"Status report, mission over. We barely put a dent in the Entombed Guardian's armor, forcing us to retreat after day battle... We.. We also lost Asagumo during the night battle. Returning to base now."

There it was, the thing the Admiral didn't want to hear. He knew that making them face the enemy at that condition was insanely foolish, but he wanted to believe.. Believe in an impossible miracle.

He laughs in self reproach and walks toward the door, pulling down his visor to cover his eyes and says this as he passes his secretary:

"Gangut, i'm retiring for a while. I'm putting you in command untill i'm ready to command the naval base again. Tell the Nishimura fleet i'm sorry.."

This wasn't the first time the Admiral had sunk a ship either, back in his earlier days as an Admiral he had made the same mistake of pushing the fleet foward when casualties were likely to happen. Infact he couldn't even remember what was the name of the shipgirl he sunk.

"What a shitty admiral i am.." Muttered the still depressed Admiral as he left the Hashirajima Anchorage and headed to his offbase residence.

A week goes by untill the Admiral returned back to the naval base.

"Welcome back, Admiral." Is what his secretary ship said to him as he entered his office.

"Hey.." The Admiral replied with both a weak smile and voice.

"How's the Nishimura Fleet doing?" asked the Admiral.

Gangut takes a moment to organize what she wants to say.

"Seems they've lost respect for you as an Admiral, but they don't outright dispise you as a person. 'Humans make mistakes' is what they agreed upon when i tried defending you."

"I see. You really are too good to me, Gangut. Even after i made that order, you choose to help me instead of siding against me.

"Of course, after all the time we've spent together and the memories you've given me, i could never go against you. Oh, but you aren't getting off the hook that easily. You're facing the firing squad as soon as i get back.

The Admiral chuckles "The firing squad? The one with DesDiv 6, right? That brings back memories.."

She smiles, "It isn't just going to be those four, the rest of the Nishimura Fleet has been recruited aswell. Instead of water guns, it's going to be paint ball guns this time, look forward to it!"

The Admiral thought back to what she said after the talking about the firing squad part.

"..Wait, get back? Where are you going?"

"To finish what we started. We're going to sink the Entombed Guardian and rescue whoever that abyssal used to be."

"But the abyssals are estimated to leave in a day or two, i don't think we can make it.

"Don't underestimate us, Admiral. The enemy doesn't seem as tough as the ones we faced in summer, and we managed to win that battle, so we can definitely beat those abyssals easily.

"You're right, maybe we _can_ do this." said the Admiral with newly found hope.

The Admiral straightens his back and looks straight into her eyes.

"Good work on taking care of the fleet while i was gone, but i shall take over from here."

"Yes. And as i said before, welcome home, Admiral.

"I'm home, Gangut."

After the Admiral gets used to the duties of commanding the naval base once again, he gathers the Nishimura Fleet along with Gangut and shortly briefs them on the final mission.

"Listen up everyone, i know what i did was unforgiveable, and i don't expect any of you to forget about what i've done, but right now we've gotta concentrate on defeating the abyssal fleet which is leaving soon. I hear i'm also getting punished when this Op. is over, so i guess i'll prepare myself for that."

The Admiral nods to Gangut and she takes care of the rest.

Before their departure, Gangut says this to the Admiral:

"I shall lead this fleet to victory" Said Gangut, as she holds a strong, poised smile "Leave it to me!"

After saying that, she spins around, her jacket and silver hair flowing in the wind. They walk towards the docks, with the sun setting as they do so.

The Admiral can only describe that scene as absoulutely picturesque.

Gangut and the rest of the Nishimura Fleet set off back into the waters of Leyte Gulf. The Admiral stands at the docks, seeing them off.

Admiral sits in the command room, alone, with his eyes closed thinking about the possibilites of another failed run. "It doesn't hurt to assume the worse" said him "Just incase it does happen, i'll atleast be decently prepared."

Just as the words leave his mouth, the radio receives a transmission.

"Admiral, we hav-.." "we've f-.."

The radio signals were weak, so the message was getting cut short. He didn't know what the meaning of the message was, but that wasn't the end of it.

"I repeat w-.." "returning to bas-.."

The signal finally cut off. The Admiral sat there, anxious. He wasn't sure if the message said that they were victorious or not, but he hoped for the former.

There they were, emerging from behind a nearby island.  
"1,2,3,4..5,6.. Where's the 7th?.."

Lagging behind the rest of the fleet was the Admiral's one and only, his wife. It seemed like there were two girls hiding behind her. "There she is.. Wait, there's only supposed to be the girl we rescued from the boss, who is the other one?"

The Admiral returns to his office.

Moments pass, then a knock is heard on the door. The first shipgirl steps in, the other still stands out in the hallway.

"Come in!" Responded the Admiral.

"Asashio-class destroyer, Asagumo, reporting in! So you're the Commander... huh. Hmm. Well, it's fine. I'll do it!"

"I see.." softly spoke by the Admiral.

Looks like shipgirls don't retain their memories upon being saved, of course they wouldn't..

I always forget that in the end, these girls that i spend all my time with are just machines made for war. Getting attached to them is exactly what the higher ups told me not to do.. But who the hell cares? I'll live life as i want, not how i'm told.

"Welcome to the fleet, Asagumo. Operation "newcomers' welcome" can now commence!"

Alternate ending: After Gangut and the Nishimura Fleet sortie to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Admiral never saw them again. The last time he heard Gangut's voice was before sending them to the boss node. The Admiral spiraled into insanity, losing his position as an Admiral and he became a criminal on the mainlands untill his eventual death in a failed attempt to attack a research facility studying shipgirls. (didn't want to put this ending, way too dark)


End file.
